


Lost Together

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Gen, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28227048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: "I have Julie's mark."None of them knew that ghosts could get new soul marks. They find out in the simplest of ways.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina, Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Julie Molina & Luke Patterson, Julie Molina & Reggie, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 18
Kudos: 255
Collections: jatpdaily secret santa 2020





	Lost Together

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [oswiins](https://oswiins.tumblr.com/) for the jatpdaily secret santa event for the prompt "Soulmate marks." Hope you enjoy, dear!

The first thing Luke does once they've found their way back into the world is check for his soul marks. Even when he wasn't tight with his parents, he'd always held onto the value of the soul marks that they'd carried for one another, and for him. His parents had been two of the lucky few to fall deeply in love with one of their soulmates. Most soul matches that people found were platonic. He'd been lucky enough to find that with Alex and Reggie (and Bobby, though that thought hits too close to home when death is still so fresh). If they've lost that in death, it's going to hurt more than he's ready for. These guys were— _are_ his brothers, and to not have that proof inked into his skin would be more than he can bear right now. He needs to know that he hasn't lost this, hasn't lost _them_ the way they've lost everything else. He needs this, at least, to know that there's some part of him that's still, for lack of a better word, living.

So the first thing he does is check the inside of his left wrist for the staff and tabs for _My Name is Luke_. It had been the first song he'd brought to the rest of the band after Bobby had joined. There had been months of playing covers so they could get used to one another before he'd felt safe with them. That had been the first time he'd offered up a little bit of himself, a little bit of his soul to the rest of them. So when the mark is still there, still tethering him to his brothers, to Alex and Reggie, that has to be enough. Nothing, not even death can take away what they had, and this is the proof that their bond is stronger than life or death.

(Except then Bobby had stolen his music, his soul, and there was no way that was ever going to be okay again, but this, at least — the mark on his wrist that hasn't faded with death — is still his. Still theirs. That has to be enough.)

* * *

Alex is the first one to get a new mark. He doesn't notice it for the first few days after they come roaring back to life — well, not life, but something like it — when Julie plays their CD. He's changing clothes for the gig at Julie's house when he notices it. It's situated in the middle of his stomach, bright pink, and about half the size of his fist. Even his Sunset Curve mark isn't that big. He stares at it for a long moment before tugging his shirt back down. He knows what this is — knows that this is Julie making her mark on his skin, on his soul from the first night after they'd awoken beside her — but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

It's not that he'd thought they'd stop getting soul marks after they died so much as that... well, actually, that's exactly what he'd thought. Plenty of people had soul marks that faded after the person they were meant for had died; why wouldn't they fade from the dead as well? Even beyond that, why would they suddenly appear on someone that isn't even alive anymore. He knows for a fact that he'd never had that mark when he was alive, and to see it now on the body he thought he knew is jarring to say the least. 

"Hey Alex, hurry up. We have to get everything ready before Julie gets home."

Alex straightens his shirt while his hands hover over the mark. "I'm coming." He'd have to ask Willie about it later.

Or not, he supposes. It's not like Willie's coming around anymore, and the skater is certainly avoiding him. It may be a lost cause.

(And if Alex doesn't have the wherewithal to ask about the mark when Willie does come by after the gig to tell them the awful news about Caleb, maybe that's for the best. It would only end up hurting Julie more in the end.)

* * *

"I have Julie's mark."

Reggie's the one that finally breaks the silence in the studio. Even without talking about it, he and Alex both know that Luke's had Julie's mark for ages. Alex hasn't said anything about one, and Reggie isn't sure that he wants to know. But if this really is the last chance he's going to have to talk to his brothers as they lie dying (again, hah) on the floor of the studio, he doesn't want this to be a secret.

When neither Luke nor Alex say anything, Reggie closes his eyes and wonders for a moment if they're already gone. But then Alex speaks. "I do too."

Reggie exhales, relief warming him from the inside out even as another jolt leaves him wincing. "I didn't even feel it come in," he confesses.

"Me neither." There's laughter in Alex's voice, and Reggie wishes he were in on the joke, but doesn't quite have the heart to ask. "Got mine our first night here, right in the middle of my stomach. Must've been from when she tried to punch me."

Reggie laughs, and it hurts — laughing shouldn't _hurt_ like this — but if this is all he gets to have of his brothers for the rest of their very short lives, then he'll find a way to be grateful for it. "Mine's on my arm."

"That why you've been wearing long sleeves so much more lately?"

"I wasn't sure what to do with it. Didn't know ghosts could get new soul marks."

"Yeah," Alex says. "Yeah, neither did I."

There's a story there, but Reggie's too tired and in too much pain to push, so he doesn't. He just reaches out toward Luke and grabs him by the wrist, squeezing once, gently.

"I got mine last night," Luke whispers. It's the first words he's spoken since they landed here, united as they were in the decision not to let Julie know that they hadn't passed on. "Is it—" He stops short, the words seeming to catch in his throat, and Reggie aches for the way it feels so close to home. "Is it?"

"Yeah," Alex says, because they'd never needed words. "Yeah, it is."

"Okay. Good."

It isn't, and they all know that, but knowing that they all have Julie in their skin — in their _souls_ — is more important than anything else right now.

(He'd thought Caleb's mark was just like anyone else's when it had appeared on their wrists in the Hollywood Ghost Club so many nights ago. He'd thought the way it burned into his body, his _soul_ was just par for the course when you got a new soul mark as a ghost. But then Julie's mark had come in, gentle and easy on the inside of his right forearm and he'd known then that Caleb wasn't all he'd seemed to be. He'd known, somehow, that he was the beginning of the end for them.)

* * *

Julie wakes up the morning after almost losing her friends — her band — her _family_ with a new soul mark. Three butterflies sprawl across her right collarbone in three different, brilliant colors. Pink, purple, blue. Warm and deep in her skin, soft and careful and perfect. They're everything the boys are to her, and having the proof in her skin is more than she thought she'd ever get to have.

She's heard of soul marks fading when the person on the other end dies, but the treble clef marking her dad's connection to her mother hasn't faded in the last year, so she knows there's more to that than what the world would have her believe. But that doesn't mean she'd ever thought she could have that much of a connection with the guys. That she could ever have them in her soul so deeply that her skin would recognize them as _hers_.

But there it is, proof on her shoulder as bright as the light that had enveloped them last night. She traces her fingers over them, her heart fluttering at the way her skin tingles with the fresh mark. It's been years since she got a new mark, but she still remembers the way these first few hours feel. Warm, bright, perfect in that way that only a soul bond can be.

It's the warmth and certainty in her chest that has her leaving the marks on display under a tank top throughout the day. Flynn gives her a knowing look at school, but Julie doesn't let it get under her skin.

Rehearsal is a hell of a thing that afternoon, but Julie isn't about to be the one to bring it up. She knows they aren't going to have matching marks, knows that this is her welcome burden to bear, but the guys keep stealing glances at her like they're trying to figure something out. She lets them take their time, though. She's not ashamed of what they mean to her, and she wants the whole world to know that she has the best band around, but that doesn't mean she's going to rub it in their faces when they don't have marks of their own.

One-sided bonds aren't uncommon, and even if this wasn't one, it's not like they could get new marks after death anyway.

It's Alex that finally breaks the silence. "You have three marks."

Julie blinks. "Yes?"

Alex looks over at Luke, then Reggie, then back at Julie. "Why— Why are they different?"

"What are you talking about?"

Alex hops up from behind his drums, dodging Luke when he tries to intercept him on the way to the keyboard. Alex is pulling up his sweatshirt to show her the pink butterfly in the middle of his stomach. Julie startles. She'd been so sure that they wouldn't have matching marks. She looks up at Alex.

"I don't understand."

"When we got our Sunset Curve marks, they were all the same. It was— They were all the same. But yours... they're all different."

"Of course they are. You all mean different things to me."

The guys stare back at her, all looking varying degrees of dumbfounded. They're clearly less concerned about their own marks than about hers, so she forges ahead, letting her own concerns fall by the wayside.

"Look, back when you were a band, you were tight, right? You all saw each other as brothers. A team. You've said as much," she adds, nodding at Alex and Reggie when they stare back at her in disbelief. "You were a unit. That's why your marks were all the same.

"But Alex, you're my soul match because you know how to listen. You take your tie with me, and you ask all the right questions and you know how to listen. And Reggie, you're my soul match because you know how to get me out of my head. You're funny and friendly and open and sometimes that's all I need to be okay. And Luke—" Julie swallows. "You're the perfect co-writer, Luke. You're exactly what I've been looking for since I lost my mom. You taught me to love music again. You— you saved me. You all saved me," she says, forcing herself to look away from Luke. "You all saved me in your own ways. And so you all mean something different to me. That's why the marks are different. Because you're all different people."

The guys don't seem to have anything more to say to that. They just stare at Julie like they've never seen her this way before.

It's Reggie that breaks the silence, rushing toward Alex and pulling up his sleeve to show off his purple mark. He and Alex dissolve quickly into conversation, but Julie cuts her eyes over to Luke. He stares back at her, eyes wide and wondering. She hopes he knows her well enough to read between the lines of her words. But then, other than Flynn, there's no one that knows her better than Luke.

He'll get there. And they'll figure the rest out in time. For now, this is enough. The warmth in the air between them is enough. Their band is enough. And this, them, as close as they can be when separated by the veil of death. is enough.

(And if she asks Carlos to do some research into soul bonds that occur after death, well, that's her prerogative. No reason to get the guys invested in something that might just be a wild goose chase.

After all, that soul-deep connection is more than just a touch. It's a way to transfer energy and light and hope and _life_ and maybe, just maybe, there's more to this than she had ever let herself hope for.)


End file.
